“Dying is easy. Comedy is hard.”

These are the words attributed to the legendary 19^th-century British actor Edmund Kean (17 March 1789 – 15 May 1833), (although most remember the line as spoken by another legendary British actor, Peter O’Toole, as the Errol Flynn-esque Alan Swann in the fabulous 1982 film, "My Favorite Year," produced by Mel Brooks).

The quote has always intrigued me, as I have often been tempted to fill in the employment line of my income tax return with “Jester.”

Yes, I am a professional comedy writer and performer. (Hopefully this doesn’t come as too much of a shock to anyone who’s read me before.)

“I pratfall because I am.”

I commune with rubber chickens.

I once got sent to an emergency room because I was hit in the face onstage with a cream pie…a frozen-solid cream pie the stage manager forgot to defrost before show time. (Because what every Jewish girl secretly dreams of is getting a bigger nose thanks to a shot in the shnozz. To my credit, I didn’t keel over ‘til the bit was over and I had walked offstage.)

All this is a preface to my point, which is: Comedy is hard. And while I’ve never made it to actual “Death” -- that elusive post-existence existence that Socrates pondered as, possibly, “the greatest of all human blessings,” I have died onstage.

By Shelly Goldstein, Feature Author

Shelly Goldstein is a writer-producer-performer who has written for every genre of television, film and stage -- and who has performed her one-woman shows to sold-out audiences throughout the US and UK. She has written special material for such performers as Steve Martin, Sharon Stone, Yoko Ono and Liza Minnelli. She has written song lyrics for G-rated children's shows and R-Rated comedy specials such as LOGO's ONE NIGHT STAND-UP. Her YouTube videos are known throughout the world.

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